The present invention relates to a cover or a protector for a portable tool, a combination of a portable tool and a cover, and a combination of a portable tool, a cover and a label or a sticker to be stuck on the tool for identification. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cover and a sticker to be stuck on an outer frame of a portable tool, such as an electric drill, an electric miter saw, and a pneumatically driven tool, such as pneumatic nail gun. The present invention also relates to a supplying method for supplying the sticker or the label and a printing method for printing the sticker or the label that can be observed through an internet and can be downloaded for printing. Here, the sticker or the label is adapted to be inserted between the outer frame of the tool and the cover disposed thereover.
Conventional portable tools include electric drills, electric round saws, pneumatic nail guns, cordless impact drivers that can be used for screw driving operations on building sites as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-337328 and electric hammers as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-229850.
As shown in FIG. 18, a conventional cordless impact driver 501 has a substantially T-shaped overall profile, and includes a motive power section, a mechanical section and a front-end tool section, those being installed in an outer frame 514. The front-end tool section is positioned close to a front end of the impact driver 501. The cordless impact driver is additionally provided with a battery pack 520 accommodating therein a battery such as NiCd cells or nickel/hydrogen cells. The battery pack 520 is covered by an outer frame 522. The motive power section includes a drive motor (not shown), and the mechanical section includes gears (not shown). The front-end tool section includes a drive shaft (not shown) and a hammer (not shown). The drive force from the motive power section is decelerated by the mechanical section and the decelerated rotation is transmitted to the drive shaft to cause the hammer to perform repeated rotation and impacting operation so as to fasten a screw by a bit provided at a front end of an anvil (not shown).
The outer frame 514 includes a resin section 514A made of nylon resin and a hammer case 514B which is a die-casting product made of aluminum alloy for ensuring mechanical strength. The power source, the motive power section and the mechanical section are covered by the resin section 514A, whereas the front-end tool section is covered by the hammer case 514B. The resin section 514A and the hammer case 514B have respective pairs of screw seats 514C, 514D that protrude radially outwardly from the outer frame 514, so that the resin section 514A and the hammer case 514B are secured to each other as screws are fastened into the screw seats 514C, 514D.
A plurality of workers often use impact drivers of the same kind on the same building site. Here, sizes and external designs of the portable tools resemble to each other in spite of the difference in manufacturers. Therefore workers may feel it difficult to accurately identify his own tool. Particularly, it will be extremely difficult to identify his tool among tools those being produced by the identical manufacturer. Therefore, it is a general practice that users of tools working on building sites paint the outer frames 514 of their own tools and/or write their own names on the outer frames 514 as precautionary measure for preventing the tools from being mistakenly used by others or from being stolen.
However, if the outer frame 514 of a tool is painted and the screw fastening work is performed near a white colored wall, for instance, the painted outer frame 514 can be rubbed against the white wall and the paint can be scraped off to stain the white wall. Particularly, in the case of the cordless impact driver 501 in which the screw seats 514C, 514D protrude radially outwardly from the outer frame 514, the screw seats 514C, 514D are prone to be rubbed against a wall on the building site as shown in FIG. 19. Then, if the outer surface of the screw seats 514 are painted, the paint can easily be transferred to the wall. Additionally, the screw seats 514C, 514D may damage to the wall due to the rubbing contact therewith.
Besides, portable tools are often handled coarsely on building sites and, therefore, they may often be scarred and/or stained. Then, the paint or the name put on the outer frame may come off. As a result, users may feel it difficult to identify their own tools. Additionally, such scarred and/or stained tools may degrade external appearance of the tools.
Further, when a portable tool is used for years, a user may be tired of the design of the paint. However, repainting is painstaking, so that the user may not positively remake the paint design.
When a portable tool is used for years, a user may be tired of seeing the drawing of the paint. However, it is a painstaking operation to repaint the outer frame so that the user may not positively remake the drawing.
This problem may be dissolved if the manufactures provide portable tools of the same sort whose outer frames are painted in different colors. Then, however, the manufacturing cost may be increased and delivery or distribution control to such tools may become difficult. As a matter of fact, some manufactures market portable tools of the same sort that are painted in different colors but the number of colors used for painting outer frames is limited to two or three because of the above described problems.
To overcome the above-described drawbacks, one conceivable way is to supply a cover to be covered over the outer frame. The cover is subjected to painting or printing for easy identification of a portable tool. However, the ink on the cover may adhere to and stain the wall as in the case of conventional portable tools.
In an alternative way, manufactures produce various types of covers with a number of different colors and patterns so that each user can select color and/or pattern of the cover. However, supplying such covers will be costly unless there is a strong demand for covers of each color and each pattern.